1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrometallurgy and more particularly to furnaces for the electroslag remelting of consumable electrodes to produce several metal ingots at one and the same time.
2. Description of Prior Art
Commonly known is the use of furnaces for electroslag remelting of consumable electrodes, the furnaces incorporating: an electrode support carrying an electrode holder with one or several consumable electrodes connected to a power supply source, a baseplate for a device (a mould) having an internal space or a cavity for melting the consumable electrodes and forming an ingot, and gears for relative motion among the electrode holder, the mould and the baseplate.
While furnaces are suitable for producing ingots of both round and rectangular cross section (slabs), their capacity, however, cannot meet ever-rising demand for metal ingots.
Attempts have therefore been made to develop a furnace with three stationary moulds operating in parallel, each mould being designed to build-up only one ingot at a time and to remelt at least a single consumable electrode.
Thus, such a prior art furnace has consumable electrodes, and encloses three slag baths which require a substantial power input for heating and for maintaining the requisite temperature of a melt thereupon; however, the simultaneous cooling of the three moulds will lead to loss of the heat.
The consumable electrodes, and there are at least three of them, are placed at a spacing which includes the thickness of walls of neighboring moulds. This in turn will necessitate larger dimensions of both the electrode holder and the furnace and will complicate the servicing operations.
Lack of high-capacity compact furnaces for the electroslag remelting of consumable electrodes to cater the requirements of modern technology poses a problem to tackle which is associated with a number of difficulties.